Turkey was bound to have issues with Sweden and its pro-Kurdish stance, and singled out Sweden because of its longstanding commitment to Kurdish aspirations. However, it is the continued US support for Kurds that is Turkey’s main concern. The issue is not what Sweden says or does, but what the US does or fails to do on the ground in Syria that is consequential for Turkey’s national security interests – and this will decide its position on the Nordic enlargement of NATO that the US government is pushing for. […]
Washington will have to decide what it cares most about: the survival of the PKK-linked Syrian Kurdish statelet or a strengthened NATO with Sweden as a member. Ultimately, the crisis in NATO over Sweden’s membership will only be overcome when the US and Turkey resolve to address their differences and reach a new, mutual understanding. […]
The former Social Democratic government of Sweden offered political and financial support to PKK-linked Kurdish groups in northern Syria – the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its military wing, the People’s Protection Units (YPG). The PKK and the PYD are both members of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), whose honorary leader is Abdullah Öcalan, the PKK’s leader (who serves a life sentence in Turkey). The KCK is officially committed to implementing Öcalan’s ideology of “democratic confederalism”, that is, the unification of the Kurdish populated areas in Turkey, Syria and Iraq. Läs rapporten